[Ether]

It's not that state machines are difficult to understand, it's just that many new programmers (new to robotics) don't realize they need to use them (or concurrent processing). They program the robot like they would program a non-realtime app on a PC. This is understandable if they've never been taught the basic concepts of realtime programming.

Teleop runs once every time a DS packet is received. DS packet is sent every 20ms (not 50ms). Any functionality (like a kicker with delays) which can't complete in well under 20ms must be written as a state machine if it's going to be put in the same thread as teleop. Or it can be run in a separate thread, using block waiting for delays. Many hours of confusion and frustration could be avoided if a way could be found to ensure that new programmers are taught these simple concepts.